The City of Waterloo wants to clear the air concerning its Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Service pension plan.

To that end, a public forum and workshop will be held Dec. 4 in Hauser Hause at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex from 7 to 9 p.m. to discuss the city’s participation in the defined-benefit retirement plan.

“There has been a lot of attention around the city and around the globe on the sustainability of the pension system,” said Coun. Karen Scian, who is co-hosting the fourum with Mike Magreehan, former chair of the now-defunct citizens’ budget task force.

She called the pension issue “complex,” adding there is no one right answer. The non-partisan event will have representation from both sides of the debate, including OMERS, a provincial labour group and Fair Pensions for All, she said.

“It’s definitely being talked about and it’s important to have all the perspectives in the room.”

Magreehan argues the system is not sustainable in the modern world. “It’s time to bring it into 2012,” he said. “(OMERS) was setup in the 1960s and the world was totally different.”

“It should be an interesting night,” he added. “It could very well get heated.”

According to the OMERS website, the plan had a $7.3-billion deficit at the end of 2011. OMERS expects the deficit to grow to $10 billion by the end of 2012, then shrink over the next decade.